


Melody

by wegotdis



Category: Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: F/M, Hurt/Comfort, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Implied/Referenced Torture, Luna University, M/M, Multi, Singing Towers of Darillium, Stormcage Containment Facility, Time Agency, clara oswald rewrite, healing from abuse, listen i'm basically rewriting seasons 5 and up because damn, river song backstory rewrite, river song deserved better, river wasn't made to kill the doctor, river's adventures with the doctor, weddings and babies
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-08-26
Updated: 2020-08-26
Packaged: 2021-03-07 01:28:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 694
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26128789
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wegotdis/pseuds/wegotdis
Summary: There's much more to River Song than a charming smirk and skill with a blaster. She came from somewhere, had a life, felt pain and love and heartbreak. She may be a mystery to the Doctor, but she knows who she is. She put in a lot of hard work to know, too.(Backstory rewrite for River Song, because Moffat did her dirty)
Relationships: Amy Pond/Rory Williams, Jack Harkness/River Song, The Doctor/Jack Harkness/River Song, The Doctor/River Song
Comments: 1
Kudos: 5





	Melody

**Author's Note:**

> As with everything with River Song, we're starting near the end. Just FYI, Thor and Loki are only here as set dressing. It's not a crossover. Unlike every other fanfiction I write lol.

Asgard was beautiful this time of year. Not that it wasn’t beautiful year-round, what with the rainbow bridge and rolling hills and golden city. Today, though, the Doctor thought as he watched the two young princes chase one another down one of those rolling hills, it was especially beautiful. He was playing babysitter at the Queen’s request. If anyone could wrangle her sons, it would be the Doctor. He’d spent the whole day with the biggest smile on his face until finally he’d wrangled them into a picnic on a hillside.

“Doctor! Doctor, there’s a lady here,” Thor said, pointing.

“I found her first!” Loki insisted.

“Did not!” Thor said, shoving him. They began to wrestle again and the Doctor left them to it while he went to see who this lady could be. The hillside was secluded. He’d chosen it for that purpose. The boys were starting to discover their powers and they needed a place to expend their energy. The entire kingdom had taken on the role of long-suffering parent and he wanted to give them a break. So who was the lady?

He slid down the hill and froze when he saw blonde curls and a self-satisfied smirk.

“Hello, sweetie,” she said.

He stared for a few moments more before he forced a smile.

“I’ve got a picnic all set up, if you’d like to join us,” he said.

She chuckled. “You do know how to treat a girl.”

She held her hand out to him and helped him up, brought them up the hill where Loki was galloping away as a foal and Thor was trying to ride him.

“Energetic, aren’t they?” she said.

“This is calm,” he said, offering her a space on the blanket. She sat, taking out the diary that the Doctor eyed with dread.

“So. Where are we…” she said, going to open it. The Doctor put his hand over hers before she could.

“Let’s not, today,” he said, smiling sweetly, but she caught onto what his eyes betrayed.

“…alright,” she said, putting it down, “Just enjoy the moment, then.”

He squeezed her hand and sat beside her, pouring her a glass of Asgardian wine. The Queen had packed it for him. ‘Just in case,’ she’d said. He wondered what she’d seen or what she knew, but River looked so elegant with the glass to her lips that he decided now wasn’t the time to think about it. Now was for the moment.

They watched the clouds, watched the bridge shimmer, watched the children run by as the two of them lounged in silence. The Doctor usually filled silence with something inane or important or just plain noisy, but today he found that he didn’t want or need to.

River watched him with curiosity. She’d never spent much time with this face, though she loved the hair. Brown suited and skinny and adorable. The silence was as comfortable as if they’d known one another for years, but that was only true on one end. Her fingers itched for her diary.

“What’s going on behind those eyes?” she mused.

“What, mine? Absolutely nothing,” he said.

“You’re never quiet for this long,” she said.

“How would you know?”

She gave him a look.

“Well, suppose that’s a poor question isn’t it?” he mumbled, watching the boys for a few moments. “…tell me about yourself?”

“I can’t,” she chuckled, “You won’t let me.” She gestured towards the diary sitting unopened between them.

“Come ooon, there must be something you can tell me without spoiling it,” he said with a smile, leaning back on his elbow. Thor came by to stuff some food in his face before chasing after Loki again. “What were you like as a child, for instance? I can’t’ve known you then.”

“I can neither confirm nor deny,” she said enigmatically.

“You can’t give me anything? Not that you ate a load of blueberries and vomited them up? Or your favorite birthday present when you were 10?”

She looked out across the vast openness of the horizon. It was full of possibilities, of a future and a past that belonged to her and no one else.

“Spoilers.”


End file.
